Decompressing and adventures in Florida

   First I'd like to start by thanking our wonderful relatives who hosted us for our five day decompression trip to Florida. We enjoyed warm company, excellent food, beautiful views, and lovely days of doing as little as humanly possible.

  They made our visit truly delightful and stress free...

Which is more than I can say for the rental car company!

   No trip with us is without adventure. We've overcome tornados, floods, windstorms, hurricanes, forest fires, flat tires, lost transmission, and nearly breaking down in customs. Why should this trip be without a snag? At least as far as adventures go, it was low on the danger scale, if somewhat higher on the irritation level.

 Normally my husband and I travel in September for our annual eight year anniversary celebration, but this year our schedules were busy and September turned into January. It was nice to leave the cold and slush behind and exchange it for chilly with a forecast of falling Iguanas.

             Seriously, there really were Iguanas falling from trees.

CNN reports Cold Florida weather causing Iguanas to fall from trees

 
   To be fair, we didn't actually see any reptiles falling, but the danger was there. Florida is a nice place to visit, but it sure can be dangerous. Which is why when the rental car agent asked why we were visiting, I told him we were robbing banks. It seemed prudent to have a police escort everywhere we traveled...

   I have to admit, the guy at the rental car place wasn't sure what to do with this tidbit of information. I wasn't feeling particularly sympathetic. By the time we got to the rental car place, we were already delayed and I was hungry. Never a good combination. If I were you, I would NEVER, EVER, rent a car with us. Our track record isn't so hot. Rental car companies are one of the top reasons we now drive wherever it is we wish to go.

I like my truck.

  To be fair, the first problem with the car rental wasn't their fault. When we booked the car on line, we didn't realize that the pick up location wasn't actually at the airport. Our bad.

  The rental car company wasn't much help after we discovered the problem. Their bad.

   Because of the way we prepaid for our vehicle through a third party, customer service became optional. Like so optional that they only called the other location after telling my husband multiple times that they weren't sure the office would still be open by the time we got there via taxi. I'm still not clear why they were unable to assist with the mix up, but I am of the opinion that repeat business is not one of their goals.

   It's not the first time we have had issues with rental cars. In the past we have been stuck with mini-vans, cars with faulty brakes (not cool going downhill in the mountains), filthy cars, missing child car seats, and unwanted upgrades. I once argued with an agent in the middle of the night in an empty airport that it was not only unacceptable that I place an infant in a booster seat, but also illegal. At the top of my lungs. Yep, that attracted police attention.

   Which is why my husband wisely left me on a bench while he dealt with the first rental car agency. He was not so lucky at the second location where not only did they NOT have the car we rented (surprise surprise), but also tried to upsell us an upgrade. If I wanted a fancier model, I would have rented one in the first place!

   Once the agent finally realized he wasn't going to get more money out of us, he completed the agreement and went out to get the car. He promptly drove it to the prep area where they proceeded to clean and inspect the car while we waited. And waited. And waited. After a time, he passed us to retrieve an air pump to fill the tires. At long last, we saw them start the car and drive it back into the lot.

WHAT?!?

   Apparently, there was something wrong with the dashboard. Perhaps if they did all the inspecting and cleaning when the car had been dropped off they would have known this sooner. Now they needed to upgrade us. Lovely, another wait.

   They didn't do nearly as much prepping with the new car. Might have had something to do with my teasing the wasp climbing the windows in their office. We were off. My husband fed me. We saw our first sunset from the highway. Not nearly as impressive as the ones we later experienced on the beach.

 
   Fortunately, the car didn't break down or give us trouble. As a matter of fact, we didn't really have to deal with the rental agency again on our trip. They were closed when we returned the car and put the keys in the drop box. We took pictures of the car, just to be on the safe side.

 

   Days after our return they sent an automated call saying our rental car was overdue for return...





I'm a little shy on bail money, so I'm leaving the reply to my husband.